The Thing Around Your Neck (2009)

As one of the apparently rare few who wasn't blown away by Half of a Yellow Sun, I took a gamble on Adichie's short story collection, The Thing Around Your Neck--and I'm very glad that I did. These twelve stories all feature Nigerian protagonists, but the settings, time periods, and situations shift from the 1967 Biafran war, to immigrants in the contemporary United States, back to a time when white missionaries were still a rare sight in Nigeria. Many of the stories deal with women struggling to balance between the old ways and the new, but Adichie also focuses on Nigeria's brutal politics, history of violence, divisive class system, and exploitation by the west. But behind those messages are real characters--real people--working hard at relationships and trying to make tomorrow just a little better than today. Adichie's writing itself is engaging and compelling, and the stories have encouraged me to seek pout her other novels. Perhaps even to give Half of a Yellow Sun another try. ( )

This collection of twelve short stories begins in Nigeria, exploring contemporary life and the effects of the 1967 Biafran Civil War. Later stories focus on immigration issues and life in the United States. I was struck by Adichie's ability to write a well-crafted and deep plot, with very real characters, all in 15-20 pages. These stories hooked me within a few sentences -- I really cared about the characters, to a degree that's unusual for the short story form. Some of the better stories included:

• Imitation - A woman living in the US with her children sees her husband only once a year. When she learns he is having an affair back home in Nigeria, she takes an important step to change the situation.


• A Private Experience - A woman caught in a riot takes refuge in an abandoned shop and finds another woman there. One is Igbo, the other Muslim, but they share a few hours of community and support each other through loss.


• The Thing Around Your Neck - in this immigration story, a Nigerian woman's relationship with a white man creates cultural tension.

Adichie is better known for her novels, Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun; the latter won the Orange Prize (now Women's Prize) for Fiction. The Thing Around Your Neck demonstrates the broad range of her writing talent. ( )

A collection of twelve short stories finds Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi reflecting on various aspects of relationships; relationships between family, people and cultures. Each of the stories are either set in Nigeria or America, and all the central characters are Nigerian.

As with most books of short stories - some are better than others. My only criticism is that a couple of the stories just seemed to stop before the end, so I didn't get a sense of closure - in fact I didn't even get a sense of a start on them. I was left with a sense of 'what was the point?' Having said that, there is the saying you can't please all of the people all of the time - and for the most part I was pleased. Here are summaries of my some of my favourite stories:

“Cell One” is the first story, and tells of a family in Nigeria whose has a problem son. A want to be rebel he steals and pawns his mother’s solid gold necklaces and hangs out with gangs at local bars. One of these bars is raided by the police and the son is sent to jail. During hissubsequent stint in prison he sees an innocent old man being humiliated by corrupt guards. Outraged for the first time in his life, he challenges the guards and ends up being beaten and sent to Cell One.

In 'A Private Experience,' Chika, a Medical student and an Igbo Christian from Lagos, who is visiting her aunt in a town in the north of Nigeria. While at the market a riot breaks out and she is separated form her sister. A nameless woman leads her to shelter, she is a market trader with five children and also an Hausa Muslim. This rescue is significant because after it is all over Chika will learn that as she and the woman shelter together and talk, Hausa Muslims are hacking down Igbo Christians with machetes, clubbing them with stones.

All in all, the stories are written well, but they deal with 'in your face' topics such as violence, oppression, fear, torture, hope lost and love denied. There were a few moments of laughter , but for the most part the characters were not happy. I personally would have liked to have seen a little more optimism, the occasional light in amongst the darkness.

I heard the title story of this collection on NPR's "Selected Shorts" podcast, and the actor who read it was amazing. Just wonderful. The drawback to this is that once you've had a story read aloud to you, it's not going to be as amazing or wonderful when you read it to yourself. Still, short stories = great beach book. It's easy to put down, and easier to pick back up. ( )

A wonderful collection of short stories; read a couple of them before in Granta and somewhere else, but wonderful to read again. She has become one of my favourites.
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